Published US application No. 2005/0015566 to Zohar et al. discloses a method for data distribution, including distributing logical addresses among an initial set of devices so as to provide balanced access, and transferring the data to the devices in accordance with the logical addresses. If a device is added to the initial set, forming an extended set, the logical addresses are redistributed among the extended set so as to cause some logical addresses to be transferred from the devices in the initial set of devices. There is substantially no transfer of the logical addresses amongst the initial set. A similar solution is suggested in case of a device being removed from the initial set.
Published US application No. 2003/034905 to Anton et al. discloses that a distributed compression of a data file can comprise a master server module for breaking the data file into data blocks and for transmitting the data blocks to worker server modules. A first worker server module can compress a first data block using a first compression algorithm, resulting in a first compressed data block. A second worker server module can compress the second data block using a second compression algorithm, resulting in a second compressed data block. The first and second compression algorithms can comprise the same algorithm or different algorithms. An archive module can save the first and second compressed data blocks in an archive file for storage or for transmission over a communication network. The worker server modules also can compress the respective data blocks using multiple compression algorithms and can choose the highest compressed result.